Heartache: Names were never changed at Ellis Island, actually

There’s no way that it could be true. The immigration process wasn’t one in which officers were recording names at all, and none were ever written down correctly or incorrectly. When people were filing through the lines at Ellis Island, they would approach an immigration officer who already had all the information on a ship’s manifest. It was his job to ask questions and make sure the people who were getting off the ship were the ones that had originally bought tickets and gotten their names on the passenger manifests.

The manifests that immigration was using were ones that came from the steamships, and most were compiled well in advance of the journey. Names were added as people bought their tickets, not when they got to the other side of the ocean.